


In the Doldrums

by shihadchick



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Columbus Blue Jackets, Gen, chilling with the boys, extremely soft, team motto: more hugs always
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29172636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shihadchick/pseuds/shihadchick
Summary: Sometimes you have to make your own fun. Luc has totally got this whole quarantine thing on lock.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11
Collections: Fandom Trumps Hate 2020





	In the Doldrums

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Annapods](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annapods/gifts).



> For Anna; I hope this suits, and I am tremendously sorry about how late it is. (It's probably obvious why I got stuck halfway through this for a long while; miss u already PLD <3) Thank you for always being an awesome friend, and for taking part in Fandom Trumps Hate 2020 <3333333
> 
> This is set just before the return-to-play in 2020; covid isn't directly mentioned but the need for isolation/quarantining is.

* * *

"Permission to come aboard?" Tex asks, sounding very serious about it.

Luc sticks his head out from behind the sheet and grins at him. "It's a fort, not a boat. You don't need permission. You brought cookies, right?"

Tex makes a face at him and holds out a bag. "I brought beer?"

He's giving Luc a look that is instantly recognizable as the same one half his teammates wear when they want him to do all the heavy lifting on making food appear in front of them. Tex has a master level in that look. And sure, Luc's shamelessly taken advantage of that to get him to do all the clean-up after, but it's the principle of the thing.

"We can't have a super chilled-out adult pillowfort tea party if we don't have food," Luc says. "Keep up."

Tex gives him a look which definitely suggests he could, if he wanted to, call Luc on his bullshit about just how grown up this whole idea is, but he's resisting the urge.

Luc secretly appreciates that; it's not like he doesn't know how much of an open book he is, and quarantine sucks and having to stay home and not go anywhere sucks, and—well, he misses Savy and Valerie and the kids. He'd gotten kind of used to living with a family, and then spending time with his own family--he’s gotten out of the habit of living by himself entirely.

But he totally gets why he can't do that right now, and calling his family or the Savards over FaceTime only goes so far, especially when you're trying to talk to a five year old who'll run off with the phone mid-sentence and drop it face down while still chattering away.

So Luc has maybe, possibly, just a little bit been kind of lonely.

And he _is_ allowed to see Tex and Bjorky, so what had started out as "wanna come over and play some COD or something?" with people who were less fucking intense about it, _Zach_ , had morphed into… this.

Luc was pretty sure all of them had too much dignity to put any of this on instagram or into the group chat, but he couldn't deny that he appreciated them rolling with this objectively kind of lame idea that had only snowballed from the point an hour ago where Ollie had looked at him like he was an idiot and said, "You can have a tea party with _us_."

They'd started out deciding that the coffee table was the wrong height unless you were sitting on the ground, and the floor was kind of cold and uncomfortable even if you had a hockey ass, so the pillows had migrated off his sofa, and then Luc had thought "fuck it," and grabbed a couple of the throw rugs that had been accumulating in his living room ever since everyone’s wives and girlfriends had found out he didn't have any.

And once you had half a pillow fort you were basically required to commit to it and go the whole way, so Luc had raided his closet and found like five sheet sets he hadn't even taken out of the packaging yet, and those had gotten added.

Turns out you could build quite a good pillow fort with tall people who weren't actually looking each other in the eyes in case someone felt compelled to point out they should perhaps feel silly about the whole thing.

One cool thing about being an adult is you can reach shit on the high shelves, and another is that this pillow fort now has a much higher degree of structural integrity than any of the ones Luc had made as a kid.

...it probably helps that their hockey sticks are a lot longer now than when he was like three feet tall himself, too.

Careful distribution of the sheets meant for the king-size bed meant they could get a cool fancy arched roof thing going on, too. It's like the Sacré-Cœur of pillow forts, except for how that's probably technically blasphemy, oops.

Whatever, he's not going to tell his grandmère that he thought it, so it basically doesn't count.

"This pillow fort needs more snacks," Bjorky had announced ten minutes earlier, apparently giving up on Tex after half an hour of phone tag, and he'd army-rolled out the side and thumped off to the kitchen.

There were some mysterious banging noises—Luc wasn't sure he wanted to know—and then when Ollie came back there was some extremely suspect looking guac and Luc’s good salad bowl was filled with corn chips.

Luc was abruptly reminded that Bjorky's dad was from, like, Minneapolis or something.

"Hey, they wouldn't be in your kitchen if you didn't eat them," Bjorky pointed out very reasonably and Luc gave in, grabbed a handful and scooped up some avocado and jammed them in his mouth. It actually tasted okay, but could do with some more chili, maybe. Not that he was going to tell Bjorky that yet. He chewed with his mouth open anyway though, just to be a dick.

Bjorky calmly ignored him and took an even larger handful of corn chips.

And then Tex had banged on the door and shoved it open without waiting for Luc to come and let him in officially, taking his standing invitation quite literally.

Tex shoves the bag of what turns out to be reasonably decent beer at Luc, and spots the tortilla chips, demanding, "Hey, save me some," as he shoves between them and takes the bowl out of Ollie's hands before sinking down onto a cushion, legs folded tailor-style. "Good work, Bjorky."

Ollie and Luc just exchange a look and Luc feels, like, super old.

He's only 22, so how does Tex have so much more bounce than he does? Then again, he got to go home and see his folks, and Luc got to drive for three days to get to Winnipeg and then drive back again a couple weeks later. And the dogs had to pee, like, every two hours. Luc misses flying places a _lot_.

"I don't think we can do a proper tea party, though," Ollie says after a minute, and Luc—still with his mouth full—raises an eyebrow. "You don't really have tea cups," he points out, very reasonably.

"…oh, right," Luc says, feeling a little flat again. “Mugs, I guess?”

It's not like he's ready to have kids of his own or anything, not for a while yet, but even though saying hi over Facetime or whatever is nice, it's not the same as getting to see them in person. And they all grow _so fast_ when they’re little. Luc finally gets why all his relatives said that to him, like, every family holiday.

The rest of the team will all be back at practice eventually at least, which is something, but he'd only just started getting used to living on his own, when he could still visit people whenever he wanted, and going back to being by himself--or almost by himself, since Tex visits more often than he's at his own home… it's been a little rough.

"I have an idea," Tex says, very mysteriously, and this time he's the one who vanishes into the kitchen and starts opening and closing cupboard doors loudly.

Luc winces, and is about to yell at him to be careful, but then playing that in his head makes him think he sounds like his dad, and that's enough to make him shut his mouth firmly on it.

Ollie takes another handful of chips and says, thoughtfully, "Do you think we can order dinner?"

Luc blinks. "Sure? I was going to make something, but if you guys want to order in instead…"

Ollie looks at him, a little too perceptive, and says, "I figured you might want a break."

Luc shrugs.

"I like cooking. And Tex is good at cleaning up if I feed him, so it's just, uh, easier?"

"Hmm," is all Bjorky says, and he leans back against the couch, screwing up his face when the top of his head hits the fort's ceiling. Using the couch to hold down one end helped a lot with the structural integrity, but it turns out none of them are short enough to sit there without having to slouch.

"PL," Tex yells from the kitchen, "Where's your oven trays?"

"What's he need?" Bjorky asks. Apparently kitchen equipment was not covered in whatever French he's picked up over the years.

It's not like Luc's going to throw stones; he doesn't have a lot of Danish down yet himself.

"I'm gonna go check before he destroys the kitchen," Luc says, and crawls out of the fort, stumbling a little as his feet slide on the cushions before he manages to stand up properly.

There's another difference in doing this as an adult instead of a kid: it's a lot further down to fall now, heh.

Tex is, as expected, making an enormous mess in Luc's kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Luc asks, scanning over the countertop, which is now cluttered with flour and sugar canisters, chocolate chips that Tex has shamelessly gulped a handful of straight out of the packet, and a whole lot of other bits and pieces.

Luc crouches down silently and retrieves the oven trays from the drawer under the oven, right where anyone sensible would have expected to find them. He raises an eyebrow at Tex.

Alexandre just smirks at him. "We could make pirate cupcakes," he says, pulling a saucepan out—he knows where those are, at least—and emptying an entire bottle of the beer he'd brought with him into it, before adding butter, and starting to stir.

"What the fuck," Luc says.

"Why are you wasting the beer?" Bjorky says, following them both into the kitchen and leaning over Luc's shoulder to stare at the results. His chin is pointy where it digs into Luc's collarbone, and Luc elbows him in the ribs. No mercy.

Oliver huffs but doesn't stop draping himself over Luc, which—

Is probably just a sign of him being observant enough to realize that Luc's stealth angling for a guaranteed hug or three by inviting them over anyway. So Luc'll allow it.

Tex spins around to measure out cocoa powder, pushing his hair back out of his eyes. He's somehow got a streak of flour on his forearm already, Luc's kind of impressed.

"My old liney's girlfriend made these all the time, they're really good," Tex says, in English this time, squinting as he scrolls down further on his phone to look at the next step of the recipe. "The beer kind of makes the chocolate better? And then you can use whiskey for frosting, if you want."

"Huh," Luc says, but he lets Tex show him the rest of the recipe and then starts measuring out everything else they're gonna need in a minute. Bjorky shows off by separating the eggs perfectly, even though it turns out they don't actually need to do that.

* * *

_ Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes _

_1 cup stout (such as Guinness)_  
_2/3 cup (~1.5 sticks) unsalted butter_  
_3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder_  
_2 cups all purpose flour_  
_2 cups sugar_  
_1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda_  
_3/4 teaspoon salt_  
_2 large eggs_  
_2/3 cup sour cream, yoghurt, or milk._

_ Boozy Frosting _

_1 to 2 cups confectioners sugar or icing sugar_  
_3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or whiskey, or rum, or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)_

_ Make the cupcakes: _

_Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line cupcake cups with liners. Bring the beer and butter mixture to simmer over medium heat._  
_Add cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat until it’s cool enough to touch._

_Add flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt to a large bowl._

_Beat eggs and sour cream (or substitution ingredient) in another bowl._

_Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine._

_Add flour mixture, and beat briefly on slow speed. Fold batter until completely combined._

_Divide batter among cupcake cases, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way._

_Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean. 17-30 minutes depending on how unreliable your oven is._

_Cool cupcakes on a rack completely before frosting._

_ Make the frosting: _

_Pour liquid into small bowl. Slowly add enough sugar, stirring as you go, until the frosting reaches the desired consistency._  
_Buttercream, ganache or other frosting types can be substituted if you prefer._

* * *

The worst thing about the cupcakes is they start smelling amazing about fifteen minutes before they're even ready to come out of the oven, and Luc absolutely wields the spatula of justice and smacks Tex's hands away from the cupcakes while they're cooling on the counter.

If they put frosting on them now then it'll just melt right off again. Luc has watched a _lot_ of the Cooking Channel in hotel rooms over the years, okay?

He's not quick enough to stop Ollie snaking one from the back of the tray and stuffing it into his mouth before Luc can say anything, but then Ollie has to try and peel the paper off as the cupcake falls apart in his mouth and he tries to make noises that say "delicious!" but not "oh no, I’ve burned my tongue" even though the truth is clearly both.

Luc and Tex laugh themselves sick, at least.

Ollie gives them a completely unashamed grin once he's actually managed to swallow it all.

"Those are good," he announces. "Good work, Tex."

Alexandre grins at them both. "So now we take them back to the fort, yes?"

It's not quite the same as sitting with stuffed animals, drinking invisible tea and eating dainty vanilla cupcakes, but watching _Anchor Man_ for the ten thousandth time while drinking beer out of mugs and eating cake with mildly alcoholic frosting with Ollie and Tex cuddled up either side of him under a pile of sheets that stretch from above the TV to the back of the couch is pretty good, as quarantine days go.

Luc'll take it.

-the end-

**Author's Note:**

> End notes: cupcake recipe adapted many years ago from Smitten Kitchen's Guinness and Whiskey cupcakes, which—alas—appears to no longer be on the internet. 
> 
> Sodas/other carbonated beverages can be directly substituted in for the beer—coke works great—and for real pirate cupcakes, top with rum frosting and chocolate coins. This recipe is really forgiving - I've futzed with amounts of almost every ingredient and still come up with tasty cupcakes at the end. It can be a quite liquid mix, and it's usually fine regardless, but if you're nervous just add a little more flour.


End file.
